Published: February
22, 2018Dance
music festival pulls out of Brean amid licensing issues

A
dance music festival due to take place in a Brean has been cancelled
amid licensing issues.

Another
World festival was due to take place in Brean's Pontins during March,
but organisers have decided to switch the event to Cotswold Airport
in Gloucestershire instead during August.

The
festival was arranged in partnership with record label Fantazia.
Organiser Lee Bayako says moving it is "one of the hardest
decisions" he's taken.

He
added that he has been organising events across the UK since the
1990s and had never had to cancel before.

At
a meeting with Pontins, Avon and Somerset Police and licensing officials
from Sedgemoor District Council, a number of issues such as full
24-hour licensing, traffic restrictions and noise concerns were
not raised.

Lee
says: "We discussed what was required to make sure the festival
was a safe event. There was no mention from the district council
about us operating under a 24-hour license which Pontins held."

A Sedgemoor
District Council spokesman says: "Our environmental health
officers get several calls a year about the cleanliness of the facilities
at Pontins and consequently visited the park to investigate and
concluded the rave was a licensable event."

"Originally,
the organisers did not apply for the appropriate licences which
ensure that any event is properly managed. Once the organisers had
met with the police and others to discuss what is needed to ensure
a safe event, they decided not to go ahead with the event."

Lee
says: "We were not told to apply for any additional licenses
and therefore did not know we were required to do so. We are professionals
with years of experience organising these events, we had detailed
plans ready to go so we could be sure the event was safely managed,
but moving was our only option."

The
festival will be held in Cotswold Airport across three days instead.

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